Savings on Solar Water Heating Systems

I suppose that it is easy to by repeating things, give them an aura of the truth. I was at the Eisteddfod in South Wales, hugely enjoying visiting the stalls. I have never been to one of these events before and this one was like a combination of a music festival and an outdoor exhibition. It was well worth visiting especially as many exhibitors were showing items that they made themselves and which being handmade had the unique quality that comes of something special.

I could not resist a visit to the Energy Savings Trust’s stall and picked up a brochure about solar water heating. The brochure was quite informative and accurate except in one and probably the most important aspect; the money savings that solar water heating brings.

The EST claimed that a typical solar water heating system on a three bed roomed home in England will save £50 a year not including grants and the renewable heat incentive. This is plainly wrong and inaccurate, unless the good folk at the EST simply do not wash. I cannot understand how they arrive at these figures but the easiest way to calculate your likely savings from a Genersys Solar Water Heating System is as follows:-

1. Take you annual spend of gas, which will normally be for gas central heating and gas hot water.
2. Take about a third of the annual spend; government statistics show that this is the average proportion of a gas bill that is spent on hot water. Of course the proportion will vary from year to year, depending on the weather, but as an average a third is about right.
3. Take a half of that third, or one sixth of the annual gas bill. That is at least what a Genersys Solar Water Heating System will save an average family. The EST’s figures of £50 a year only make sense to me if your annual gas bill is £300.

The chaps at the EST have promised to revert to me with their comments on my methodology and if and when they do, I shall let you know how they calculate their figures.

It is a shame that the Energy Savings Trust has consistently peddled this nonsense about savings for so many years. Unfortunately, it seems to have an idee fixee in its corporate brain about solar water heating savings. It is an old habit and an old habit which will die hard.